19 October 2011

Sometimes you just need a car?

I have a new commute. My friend watches Future Cyclist two days a week. She's in Arlington just off the Minuteman. At first I drove to her and then rode my bike to work, because that's what we knew. I quickly realized how miserable it is to have my baby in the backseat while I'm stuck driving, so now we take the subway to Alewife, walk a ways to my friend's house, and then I bike to work... Some people make think we just need a car but these mornings together are the highlight of my day.

All this leadup to explain why I was on the subway and saw this Zipcar advertisement:

OK, I agree, sometimes you might just need a car. That's true. But the example given in the photo? That's just not the case there. Sometime you just need SOME BIKE RACKS people! For the $60 annual Zipcar subscription you could get a decent set of front and rear racks, solving the problem posed in the photo for more than just one year.

7 comments:

Are they running that in this market? I had heard about it a while ago, but hadn't seen any signs with it here.(maybe like the Coraline ad, it's just one of those MBTA perma-ads).

And yes, you might need a car to get a sofa from IKEA or visit a job site 50 miles away during a workday, but to carry a bunch of papers and a briefcase? You gotta be kidding! Even without racks, a backpack or messenger bag would have solved this problem in about 5 seconds.

I think that if every single student in Boston has solved this problem, these smartly dressed business types can figure it out without having to rent a car.

I have mixed feelings about the Zip Car campaign. It's kind of humorous but anyone who actually bike commutes to work or takes a bike grocery shopping will wonder if only a moron would try and carry their stuff like that rather than use panniers. I like the whole concept of ZipCar so I don't want to be too hard on them, because, yes, sometimes you really do need a car, but they just seem to have let their finger slip from the cutting edge of their likely customer base (or at least who I presume that to be). At least they aren't taking the beating that GM is right now.

I am looking at it like this: Cyclists who don't own a car are probably one of the biggest target markets for zipcar. This is supported by the fact that zipcar takes books at bike shows and conventions. Then why insult the very target market you are hoping to reach out to? Even some basic market research on their part would have shown that transportation cyclists would find the ad ridiculous and offensive. Their ad team "dropped the ball" on this one.

I would think this is a silly add because you want more people on bikes because then the will use your service. Zip car should be running adds that encourage people to give up cars so the can avail of Zip car when they need a car. Not trying to convince your target Market that maybe they need a car full time. So maybe an add showing the yearly cost of car transport, then ask what else could you do with this money ie holiday plus Zip car hire and still the guy in the suit is thousands better off. Therefore you have encouraged another customer for this week, and next year